Saturday, June 2, 2018

It’s not just Starbucks that has succumbed to P. C.
bullying. America’s junior Red Guards have escaped from their campus cages and
are running wild in American cities. Naturally, this happens in the most progressive
“woke” cities, places like Portland, OR.

Andy Ngo reports on some recent incidents in the Wall Street
Journal. They speak for themselves:

But
these days politics is ruining the scene. One of the first victims, Sally
Krantz, in 2016 opened a bistro, Saffron Colonial, featuring historical recipes
from the British Empire. Furious social-justice warriors accused her of racism
and glorifying colonialism. Mobs gathered outside the establishment, and
detractors swamped its Yelp page
with negative reviews and insults. Suppliers boycotted her. Eventually Ms.
Krantz gave in and changed the name to British Overseas Restaurant Corporation.

And also:

In the
spring of 2017, Kali Wilgus and Liz Connelly were accused of “stealing” Mexican
culture—by selling burritos from a truck. They received death threats and shut
down their business and their social-media presence.

Just in case you wondering about the rationale, Ngo
continues:

Then an
anonymous Google spreadsheet began circulating warning about restaurants that
served ethnic cuisine: “These white-owned businesses hamper the ability for
POC”—people of color—“to run successful businesses of their own . . .
by either consuming market share with their attempt at authenticity or by
modifying foods to market to white palates.”

And, of course, an incident at a bakery reminds us of what
happened in that Philadelphia Starbucks. It turns out, a black customer wanted
to be served after a bakery had closed. She was refused service and decided
that she was singled out for being black. It did not cross her mind that being
black does not mean that you do not have to play by the rules.

Here is what happened:

Last
month Lillian Green, an “equity director” at the state Education Department,
entered Back to Eden, a vegan bakery, a few minutes after closing time. She
recorded videos accusing the bakery of refusing to serve her because she was
black. Using the hashtag #LivingWhileBlack, Ms. Green—a doctoral student at
Lewis and Clark College—took to Facebook to
demand that Back to Eden fire the clerks.

The
bakery obliged, issued a 3,400-word apology, and offered Ms. Green a job
training the remaining employees in “racial inclusivity.” “In this situation it
doesn’t really matter that the two staff members working are not themselves
racist because the call they made to deny Lillian service caused her to feel
like she had been discriminated against,” co-owner Joe Blomgren wrote in a
now-deleted Facebook statement. “Sometimes impact outweighs intent and when
that happens people do need to be held accountable.”

It takes very little in a progressive city to produce
paroxysms of guilt in white people who have done nothing wrong.

And then, of course, there was Reparations Happy Hour:

Last
week the Backyard Social tavern hosted a “Reparations Happy Hour,” during which
“Black, Brown, and Indigenous people” were each given $10 and a drink paid for
by white donors—who were asked not to attend.